Author: chicagoinquirer

by Lauran Neerguard WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Thursday to shut down a Miami organ donation group, calling it “failing” because of underperformance, unsafe practices and paperwork errors. The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, nonprofit agencies around the country that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant waiting list. The administration cited an investigation that found a 2024 case where an unspecified mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting surgery. In a news…

by Mary Clare Jalonick WASHINGTON  — The Senate has confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees at once, voting for the first time under new rules to begin clearing a backlog of executive branch positions that had been delayed by Democrats. Frustrated by the stalling tactics, Senate Republicans moved last week to make it easier to confirm large groups of lower-level, non-judicial nominations. Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor. The new rules allow Senate Republicans to move multiple nominees with a simple majority vote —…

by Bridge Brown, Michael Warren and Curtis Yee The man accused in the Charlie Kirk assassination had earlier expressed to family his opposition to the viewpoints of the conservative activist, the authorities said Friday in announcing an arrest in a targeted killing that raised fresh alarms about political violence in the United States. Tyler Robinson, 22, had indicated to a family friend afterwards that he was responsible, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. He also cited as key pieces of evidence engravings on bullets found in a rifle believed used in the attack as well as chatting app messages attributed to…

by Christopher Rugaber WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s goal of appointing a majority of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors faced a setback late Tuesday when a court blocked his unprecedented attempt to fire Lisa Cook. But the very next next day, his nominee to replace another Fed governor moved forward, giving him one more opportunity during his second term to reshape the Fed. Over time, Trump will almost certainly get the lower short-term interest rate he is seeking, economists say, although it’s unlikely the Fed will shave 3 percentage points from its current level of about 4.3%, as he…

by Christine Fernando and Sophia Tareen CHICAGO  — The Border Patrol agent who has broken norms leading an immigration crackdown in Los Angeles reached Chicago on Tuesday, potentially signaling a new, more aggressive phase to an enforcement surge announced last week in the nation’s third-largest city. “Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!” Gregory Bovino said in an X post that included a stylized video of Customs and Border Protection vehicles driving into the city along with agents walking in slow motion amid picturesque downtown shots. “Operation At Large is here to continue the mission we started in Los Angeles.” Homeland Security Secretary…

by Mark Sherman WASHINGTON  — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. The Republican administration turned to the high court after an appeals court refused to go along with ousting Cook, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape the Fed’s seven-member governing board and strike a blow at its independence. The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting…

by Meg Kinnard Former President Barack Obama says that the United States is at “an inflection point” following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and that President Donald Trump has further divided the country rather than work to bring people together. “There are no ifs, ands or buts about it: The central premise of our democratic system is that we have to be able to disagree and have sometimes really contentious debates without resorting to violence,” Obama said Tuesday night during an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Jefferson Education Society, according to a transcript obtained by The…

by Cora Lewis NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate Wednesday for the first time in nine months. Since the last cut, progress on inflation has slowed while the labor market has cooled. That means Americans are dealing with both high prices and a challenging job market. The federal funds rate, set by the Federal Reserve, is the rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another. While the rates that consumers pay to borrow money aren’t directly linked to this rate, shifts in Fed policy affect what people pay for credit cards, auto…

by Christopher Rugaber WASHINGTON  — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point Wednesday and projected it would do so twice more this year as concern grows at the central bank about the health of the nation’s labor market. The move is the Fed’s first cut since December and lowered its short-term rate to about 4.1%, down from 4.3%. Fed officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, had kept their rate unchanged this year as they evaluated the impact of tariffs, tighter immigration enforcement, and other Trump administration policies on inflation and the economy. Yet the central bank’s…

by Lisa Mascado The House declined late Wednesday to punish one of its own over commentary in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, but the effort showed the reach of President Donald Trump’s push for political retribution and set the stage for more to come. The 214-213 roll call shelved a resolution from GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolinato censure Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and have her removed from two House committees: Education and the Workforce, and Budget. The two have feuded viciously on social media. Mace has said Omar, an immigrant who criticized Kirk’s views of…